Unsubstantial Father: A Study of the Hamlet Symbolism in Joyce's Ulysses

“The aunt is going to call on your unsubstantial father." Thus jeered Buck Mulligan, ridiculing Stephen Dedalus’ chief obsession, the theme of paternity, which in all its various ramifications continued to haunt Stephen throughout the whole of Ulysses. Commentators have long recognized the importance of this father-son relationship for a proper understanding of Joyce's symbolism; indeed, Ulysses is largely the saga of Stephen's search for a father. In spite of this, I feel that it has never been adequately treated. It is true that Stuart Gilbert devotes a whole chapter of his book on Ulyssesto a discussion of the paternity theme, but since he uses theosophy as a Procrustean bed on which to fit Joyce's text, his treatment is necessarily somewhat limited. It is in the Scylla and Charybdis episode, somewhat neglected by commentators, that we may hope to find an answer to the following questions: "Why was Stephen Dedalus not satisfied with ordinary fatherhood, the relationship with Simon, his consubstantial father; and what was the particular relation for which he quested?" The Scylla and Charybdis episode, usually known as the Library scene, so called because it takes place in the National Library in Kildare Street, is significant because of the light which it throws on Stephen's relations with his father and mother. Here Stephen expounds a theory concerning Shakespeare's family, based principally on a study of Hamlet, and, under cover of this exposition, propounds a theory of fatherhood and rids his soul of some of the bitterness caused by his relations with his own family.